Maithripala and the 'Missing Element'

Majority of those who support Mr. Maithripala Serisena, common candidate for 2015 Presidential Election in Sri Lanka, may not be pleased to hear that 'something is terribly missing' in his approach in creating a good governance for future Sri Lanka. Those who want to abolish executive presidency and its 'organic evil' have legitimate reasons to support him, and I too have no objection in restoring democracy and good-governance in the country. But we have temporarily forgotten a significant aspect that decides the future shape of our country where corruption and malpractices have further devastated the living conditions of public. The reformations like good governance or anti-corruption methods will only make us temporarily forget about  the true evils and inner contradictions of capitalism that encompasses the whole life world today. However, more than anything else, ethnic otherness and power devolution cannot simply be put off from the public discourse for immediate strategic reasons. If we forget that important element from the discursive public sphere now, there is no way that it can be debated with its own complexity drawing public attention. We all already know that something important is actually (deliberately) missing in his political approach but we simply disavow it. My effort in this small article is to remind you of the risk of being negligent about what is not debated at this moment as to what should be done in future (if he wins the election) to bring back real democracy and national reconciliation.

In modern psychoanalysis, 'the missing element' represents Object a; 'the void at which the symbolic order remains perpetually riven' (McMillan 2012: 55-56). Here, Object a signals the limit point of symbolic order and its possibility of suture.  In this context, what is missing in Maithripala's campaign (මෛත්‍රිපාල සහ 'මගහැරුණු මුලදර්මය') and his political manifesto is the attention that should be given to the ethnic Other, which historically caused this catastrophic end that we experience today. The real symbolic order for the nation can be achieved only through a proper power sharing solution which we lacked after independence. One can claim that the silence over the 13th Amendment can be strategic until the election is won, but such strand is misleading and cunning. The reason why I claim it is cunning is that the complexity of this issue is not taken up in the public sphere.   As long as you delay or escape or avoid this issue being taken up argumentatively in the public arena, considering the diverse groups that Maithripala is supported today to win this election, it will be really difficult to take it up later. Even some political critics doubt his promise to abolish the Executive Presidency remains vulnerable due to the pressure from the Nationalists (read Kumar David's article in Colombo Telegraph).  

Maithripala's political position now is to by-pass or avoid the ideological intervention to the 13th amendment (see the diagram above) and an acceptable solution to the ethic problem in the country, but win the majority Sinhalese votes to be the next President to bring back good governance. This is an ideological trap that we all are unfortunately caught in.  There is no way that we can think of a better future by forsaking the true issues of the Tamil Otherness.  There are no short cuts to this. There is only one way; that is the hard way. In this sense, the symbolic position of all those who 'dream of democracy' at this juncture are split (or riven) between symbolic universe (as Mr. Champika Ranawaka says 'building an honorable society') and the Impossible; strength to stand up for the equity of the ethnic Other.  What they by-pass is a pervert escape, and why many people wish to vote for Maithripala is because he carefully avoids the Real, and maintains a fantasmatic relation with the existing social order; to keep the Tamils at the usual disadvantage position, not to bring their grievances to public discourse and then to win the  upcoming election. It is a reduced symbolization. 

Read: McMillan, C. (2012). Zizek and the Communist Strategy. Edinburgh University Press. UK.